The invention relates to a comprehensive system and method for managing safety and security in commercial and residential buildings. The system is relevant to normal activity and alarm conditions including but not limited to door openings, system arming, system disarming, temperature changes, moisture changes in addition to break-in, medical and fire alarms. This system includes multiple alarm sensors in communication with one or more control systems that interface by means of the World Wide Web to external peripheral devices. Users of security systems want the ability to receive messages such as alarms, system status, opening and closings, etc., to their work and home email addresses, cell phones, and other PDA's and personal messaging devices such as Blackberries. A good example is receiving a notification when the children of the user arrive home from school and disarm the system or when an alarm occurs. The end user may desire messages that need not be sent to a central monitoring station supervised by trained personnel that have a primary mission of dispatching fire and/or police personnel when the data transmitted to the central monitoring station indicates to them that such action is appropriate. A perfect example here is a water/leak sensor whose fault can be transmitted to the homeowner, without the risk of accidentally dispatching police and/or fire responders.
A U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/364,909, entitled Universal Gateway Module and having the same assignee as the present application was filed on Dec. 18, 2002. This application describes novel approaches to interfacing peripheral devices to one or more control systems. This application is incorporated herein by reference.
The prior art includes the ALARMNET® family of communication services provided by Ademco Group, Syosset, N.Y. and designed for the security industry. Types of services include both wireless and Internet based network services. These services are independent; however, a network control center allows messages received from one network to be redirected over another network. The wireless services are identified as ALARMNET-A, ALARMNET-M, and ALARMNET-C. The Internet service is identified as ALARMNET-I. The present invention utilizes these networks in addition to other communication networks.
The prior art includes various systems relying on cameras in the protected premises that are coupled by the Internet to allow remote observation of the premises.